Did you know that the world's most skilled movement practitioners don't rely on talent to achieve the impossible? While most beginners expect their talent to take them places they're not ready for, the difference is that masters understand the impact of the process. And there's a simple, though not necessarily easy, process that masters use to reliably achieve the impossible.

Every complex movement is made up of simpler components.

The more complex a skill becomes, the more components are required to build it.

In movement, every form is made up of simpler forms and also serves as a form in a more complex form. So it's higher on the chain than some simpler skills but lower on the chain than some more complex skills.

Existing as both the consequence of simpler skills and the cause of more complex skills. Component. Or more complex skills.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast released by Aubrey Marcus. His discussion with Alex Ormosi at the Arcadia Festival. And they were discussing money, and both of them have been extremely successful in many different domains. They reiterated the same concept that every single thing in life can be accomplished by breaking it down into simpler and simpler components or skills.

And they've applied this across a spectrum of domains in business and life.

So I have no doubt that there are very few places where this understanding, this process of simple to complex, isn't found.

To conquer any skill, or in our context now, to conquer any movement properly, demands that we understand its parts, the different pieces that make it. And to truly conquer a movement or a pattern, we must conquer the parts or components of those movements, of those patterns.

I think there is a somewhat unconscious belief that those who haven't truly mastered a skill to a world-class level think that those who have innate talent or ability that makes it more accessible for them. But 9 out of 10, if not more, of the people who reach world-class level get there through processes and practices designed to incrementally improve them.

They master endless components that they then put together to form complex skills or abilities.

When it comes to our movement, I think it's most simply explained by the fact that when we are developing ourselves for a complex movement, a more demanding movement, we need to progressively and patiently develop the structures to be able to tolerate the loads that are going to come in the more complex or demanding scale.

Neurologically, from a coordination perspective, the skill perspective, movement is a language, maybe our most fundamental and primary language. There's a beautiful TED talk by Professor Walport titled "The Real Reason for a Brain," and movement is that reason. Things like language are abstractions of our movement ability, and in the same way, we appreciate composing language.

We begin with single letters, which we then compile into words, which we then form sentences to form paragraphs, essays, books, and beyond. There is no writing a book without being a master of the letters, words, and sentences. A movement is no different. No skill is no different.

Any skill that requires our neurological development probably requires that we progressively master layer by layer from simple to complex.

Within the movement realm, I've heard Ido Portal refer to this concept of simple to complex as a journey from isolation through integration and then through improvisation. A very similar idea. We isolate the components, we integrate the components, and then we explore and play with those components.

Once we have the fundamentals, we can't expect to improvise to our limits without having familiarized or conquered the basics.

The highest performers take this one step further. They not only recognize that we get to the complex from the simple, but that the simple is a foundation upon which the complex rests. The simple is fundamental to our complex skills. In order for us to remain proficient in our complex skills, we need to continuously refine and improve the basic skills.

There's no leaving the basic skills behind and moving on to the complexity.

Across various spiritual traditions, this has been explained as Shaila, Samadhi, Pranayama. We've got Srivakayana, Mahayana, and Tantrayana. We've got Ethics, concentration, and wisdom. These are three layers of the pyramid. Three layers of development. One has to access purification of the mind, which is the second layer. And then through purification of the mind, access wisdom. But ethics can never be dropped. Ethics is the first foundation. But one that the wisdom and the mind purification rest on continuously and can never be dropped or left behind.

There doesn't seem to be a realm or pursuit in which this journey of going from simple to complex and having the complex rest on a solid foundation of the simple is not found. I haven't seen anything of meaning that doesn't follow this process.

In fact, I have often seen and heard stories of some of the world's best achieving near perfection by breaking down what they aim to perfect and continually refining each of the components, compiling those components part by part, piece by piece.

And then moving towards a more impeccable wholeness. The more complex and impressive a skill is, the more difficult it becomes to master such a stretch towards our limits. By definition, we have to bring it within reach to take it to such a level of mastery.

And I have experienced this over and over again in my movement practice, even in the classes I attend. If I'm able to break down a complex skill into simpler components or skill practices, I can understand that the complex component is built from. And then I spend time working with those basic components, I always come back to the more complex skill with a significantly improved ability. Yet sometimes I can spend months on a complex skill with very little to no progress. There's some threshold that I've crossed between my ability and the demands of this activity, and it becomes extremely difficult to break through that plateau of development.

And maybe one of the most powerful ways to break through plateaus, which I'm discovering through my experience, is to improve the basics. To go back and enhance the basics. Take something that is within reach and see how much further we can push it. And then go back to something more complex.

And like I said at the beginning, what a beginner mind often does is move as quickly as possible from a simple practice to a more complex practice. Trying to get to what they believe is the goal of the journey, what they think is impressive, exciting, stimulating, without understanding that the only way to access the more impressive is by obsessing over the mundane. That the more time they spend on the basics, the quicker the more challenging and complex skills will come when the time is ready. It also turns out to be a much less risky, safer way to progress on the journey. Many beginners are taking massive risks by rushing through the journey without realizing it's not worth it. They don't even realize they are taking risks.

And that those risks are not worth it, that true mastery will come from learning those letters, learning those words, learning those sentences. From truly ingraining, embedding, and downloading the fundamental skills.

So I recommend that you don't be that person.

Patience and persistence are some of the most valuable virtues for a good reason. Take your time, study the movement. This is also an exercise in understanding what a skill or movement or pattern is made of. What are the components that make up this goal of mine? And then have the patience and humility to focus on and develop those components.

And then explore different ways of compiling and combining those components into slightly more integrated forms, inching towards a more perfected whole. And even once we reach an impressive wholeness of the parts, we don't leave behind the parts. We realize that familiarity with the letters, words, complete mastery of the fundamentals is what the more impressive and expansive abilities depend on.

This is a journey to real mastery. This is how obsession, properly applied, takes the world's best performers to the highest goals, achieving near perfection, if not actually reaching perfection sometimes.

Personally, I never cease to be amazed by the power, the results of this method, this approach. And there's something deeper, which I think I'm yet to clarify completely, but I believe I have successfully described many important components of this patient, persistent, compartmentalized approach to mastery. Layers, from simple to complex. Movement itself, like any other skills, which are often abstractions of our movement learning journey.

Movement is like a layered onion, like a pyramid with a bigger, stronger foundation to support everything above it. And how we get from simple to complex is truly through the simple, then the complex. I hope this is insightful. This has given me so much context and perspective in my journey to develop challenging skills, to develop long-term abilities, high-level abilities.

May it serve you to use it on the journey. If you want to experience how I've applied these principles to the journey of fundamental spinal skills, spine stability, and curing back pain, or really, from a performance perspective, what is the most fundamental skill, if we had to break back all the layers, what would we find at the core of the onion, on the journey of spinal development, which is at the heart of our movement development?

That's what my course, Kinetic Keystone, is all about. And if you feel moved to take some action on that, please go check it out at CraigVan.com. If you know someone else who could benefit from this information, please share it with them. Help me get the message out. Do your good deed for the day. And I recommend you follow and subscribe.

Your future self will benefit a lot more from that. And until next time, I wish you wellness.